Sitting on my Toilet

I can’t remember how old I was before I started trying to make sense of things.  Most likely from very very earlier on in my childhood.  This is something we do naturally – humans are meaning makers.  We interpret things and assign meanings to them; whether they are true or not.  That’s how humans are wired.  Animals are different.

If we all interpret things, every second of the day, for every incident, for every thing someone says to us, and for every thing that happens, we assign meanings from experiences or we create new meanings to make sense of things; then it means that my interpretation of something and the person next to me, can be hugely different! Who is right? We all are, at least it will seem like that to us anyway.

With the interpretation, comes the story.  Story then brings feelings and eventually translates to behaviors.

As an illustration, here is an event that happened: your friend was rushed into a hospital last night.

What’s your interpretation? How did it make you feel?

For me, the interpretation was, ‘oh man, something bad must’ve happened.  did he/she get sick or injured?’.  Right a way, with that interpretation, I get worried and anxious.  Feeling sad.  Action? I’d probably either call up a friend to see if they are ok etc.

Though what if the actual story had been: your friend was rushed into a hospital last night because her water broke and she is in labor?

Now what’s the feeling? Joy, Happyness?

Because we are natural interpreters of things, how we respond to them can vary greatly between person to person.  While the reality could be completely opposite of how any of us had interpreted.  Also, some things just don’t have meanings but we add meanings to them.

Where am I going with this?

Well, if we have been interpreting things incorrectly, how will we ever know? Certainly we won’t be able to tell ourselves because well, to us, that’s how we’ve interpreted it.  In the case of above example, someone other than ourselves will have to point it out to us that our story that we wrote is wrong.  But what about things that are more complicated?  How can we figure things out when the very lens that we look out from is distorted?

Back in the Garden of Eden, even before the fall, there was a reason (among all other reasons) why Adam and Eve had daily fellowship with God.  We needed God to give us guidance, compass, direction and wisdom.  We needed the truth.

Is the north of your compass pointed to the true north today?